Week 6: Violence and Politics

1. If someone kills someone else in our society, they are suspected, arrested, and then put on trial by a jury to prove that they are guilty. This is much different from the way that the Yanomamo handle killings and consequences. In the Yanomamo culture, revenge is practiced. If it happens within the group, the two groups divide and begin raiding each other, where more killing occurs. When someone in our society kills someone, the society does not allow a family member of that person to begin raiding the killer's house or to go kill him. However, the two cultures can be seen as similar in some cases, where it is seen as acceptable to go after someone that is going to hurt you or your family. The most recent case that I can think of where this occurred is where the father found out a man was sexually assulating his five-year-old and attacked him. The man did not mean to kill him, but accidentally did. This is a case where a man killed another man in first degree murder by beating him to death and he was found not guilty. This is because it is acceptable in our society to do whatever you need to to protect your family and yourself.

2. The Yanomamo's revenge is called blood revenge. After someone is killed and there was a kinship obligation attached to the person killed, raids begin taking place. There is a raiding party in which 10-20 men participate. Some turn back because the village is too far away for other reasons, but what usually happens is that there are drop puts along the way that make excuses for why they cannot fight. Most are just frightened. If they drop out every time or almost every time, the man is labeled as a coward. The night before the raid they burn an effigy of the person they most want to kill. The next day at dawn when the raid occurs they usually kill the first person they see and then begin shooting arrows and then quickly retreat. If someone kills someone or shoots someone with an arrow, they can have the ceremony of unokaimou performed. These can continue back and forth. Men also have the option of declining to go if the village being raided has close kinship living there.

3. If you obtain the unokais status, you thought of as stronger and braver. The more unokais you obtain the fiercer and strong you look. This also gives you economic and reproductive benefits. Women are taken forcibly and also more attracted to men who are unokais. Unokais also are able to protect their family and dependents by deterring violence.  Unokais are very valued in their communities. The benefit of being a non-unokais is you have fewer mortal risks

4. Political structure, social status/social organization, kinship, marriage and reproduction, and behaviors are all interconnected and all influence each other. The political structure is set up that the head of the village is the male that is the leader of the largest descent group. Social status is set up that unokais are valued and you are thought to be a coward if you do not seek revenge or raid other villages with your raiding party. All headmen are unokais. They value strength and aggressives not timidness and cowardice. It seems like everyone is related to everyone. The kinship is very close, where in their lifetime the will know at least one relative that has died violently, if not more. People from other villages can also be closely related to people in other villages. The close kinship does not only extend to people within the same village. Marriage also adds the close kinship by acquiring more family through marriage. Many men, especially the headmen, have more than one wife and have on average around a dozen wives within their lifetime. This leads to a huge number of children in which they are all related. The behavior that is promoted is that men are aggressive, brave, and courageous. The way this is practiced is that it is encouraged to take revenge. It is normal to raid another village for a good reason, such as someone killing your family member. It is shameful to be a coward and not to take revenge into your hands. Men will forcibly take your wives, if you are thought to be a coward because they no nothing will be done. All of these elements go into making revenge killings acceptable and encouraged. All these elements: political structure, kinship, and marriage, fuel the fire, so to speak. They continue the cycle of killing and raiding for revenge of family members and other reasons.

Although cultures socialize people to not want to kill and to see it as socially unacceptable, people are still going to do it because of human nature. Laws are necessary because without laws people would kill take what they want or need. They would also kill to avenge and protect their family, just as the Yanomamo do. Human nature is selfish. Human nature also wants security. I think you can also see this in the Yanomamo. They value unokais and they value strength, aggressiveness, and being fierce. This can be seen that they value this because it provides the community with security. For example, the one Yanomamo village where 8 out of the 11 unokais who had unokaised more than 10 times lived. The village was seen as fierce and their chances of being attacked probably greatly deceased. It may also be seen in the women that are more attracted to a unokais man than a non-unokais, they know a unokais can protect them better from violent attacks.